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Monday, August 26, 2013

Foxborough, Mass. – The Philadelphia Union (10-8-8) fell to the New England
Revolution, 5-1 Sunday
night at Gillette Stadium in the third game of the season between the
two sides. The Union now return home to PPL Park for an Eastern
Conference matchup vs. Montreal Impact next Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET, broadcast on Comcast SportsNet.

After
an equalizing goal from Danny Cruz in the second half made the score
1-1, the Union seemed to take a 2-1 lead on a goal from Conor Casey just
minutes later, but
a questionable call from the referee appeared to judge New England
goalkeeper Matt Reis to have possession before Casey got a foot to it.
The Revolution then rallied for four second-half goals to give the
Eastern Conference side three points on the night.

“I
think there are some plays made early in that second half and we felt
like we did all the right things coming out of the locker room at
halftime and had the moment
and get the equalizer and then we felt like we got the go-ahead goal,”
Team Manager John Hackworth said after the match. “And for whatever
reason, the officials felt otherwise. It’s incredibly hard to take that
part of it, because it changes so much.”

The Revolution opened up the scoring for the game in the 26th minute, as midfielder Kelyn Rowe found space outside the 18 and fired a low, hard shot from
distance. The shot flew into the upper corner of MacMath’s net to give New England the lead.

After the break, the Union came out firing and eventually were rewarded in the 50th
minute, as Casey slid a ball in behind the defense to Cruz, who took
one touch and eluded Reis towards the corner. Once clear of the New
England keeper, Cruz fired a shot into an empty net from a tight angle,
giving the Union the tying goal.

The Union
continued to attack for another, but the apparent go-ahead goal from Casey was called
back just minutes after the equalizer. The striker
pounced on a loose ball inside the box to poke it into the net, but a
whistled from
the referee seemed to rule that Reis had possession, as the goalkeeper was on the ground near the ball.

From
there, the Revolution found a rhythm and scored four unanswered goals,
as a Union own goal and others from Rowe, Fagundez and Agudelo gave the
Revolution a lopsided
victory on the night. It was the Revolution’s second win at home this
year in which they score five goals, previously defeating defending MLS
champions LA Galaxy by a 5-0 score line.

“A loss is a loss. At the end of the day,
that’s not what we came up here to do,” Hackworth said.
“We have to keep it in perspective and do what we do every game. Win,
lose or draw, we’ll go back and look at the video and try to make a lot
of corrections and get ready for
next week.”

As the Union look ahead, another important Eastern Conference match is set for next week against Montreal Impact (7:30 p.m. ET, CSN), who currently are first in Eastern
Conference standings. Despite the loss, Philadelphia remains in playoff contention as they sit in fourth place in the East.

“Sometimes
results like this are a big wake-up call and you can react one of two
ways. You can let it get you down or you can stay strong, stay together,
fight harder
and do well for the rest of the team,” team captain Brian Carroll said.
“We have to find the way to do the latter part.”